Krum's Puzzle
by JoTheGirlBro
Summary: I've always imagined the different possibilities from which Krum and Hermione first became friends and then progressed to dating. We never see Krum as a very emotional character, so I gave him thoughts and made him pluck up the courage to talk to her for the first time. Live the relationship of Viktor and Hermione.
1. Chapter 1

Maybe if I stare at her for long enough and with such great intensity, she will look up, see me, and maybe even come over. Sure she will, Viktor, sure.

Gosh, she is so pretty. Not like the girls I'm made to appear with as celebrity superstar snitch. Not like the group of giggling girls who stalk me as I go out for a morning run. How many books are on her table now? Is that 6? By the titles of the great slabs of work she is writing a potions essay on Chaudria's Cough Juice. I remember reading about that in fourth year. Or was it third?

Focus, Viktor, focus! You don't have time to have pathetic crushes on girls who you don't have a chance with!

Okay, so the first task is dragons. In a strange way I sort of wish I could reverse time and not know about the first task; I want to learn more about being a wizard! Isn't that the point of these tournaments, to test young wizards to see how they use magic?

Focus, Viktor! Less thought on the problems of their tournament and more on the majestic creatures of the deep: dragons. So it says here that dragons have sensitive eyes and these are their greatest sensory organs. I could use a hue spell, aiming a cloud of purple in front of the face… Blinding hexes are difficult even for powerful wizar-

She's getting up.

She's tucking her chair under.

She's putting her hair behind her ear. I love her hair. The fudge tones, the wavy craziness, the thick locks.

She's grabbing two of her books- lord, she is strong to carry those- and walking over here.

She's glancing up and down the rows of books, scanning the library number coding system for their place.

Her eyes light up as she sees the slot that they shall fill.

She's turning around and walking back.

She's sitting down again.

Idiot! Why didn't you say anything?! You're Viktor Krum! The number one quidditch player in the world and you can't even say hello to a girl who is a year or two or three below you? Girls will run up to you and flash body pa-

She's getting up again.

She's got, what is that, homework diary?

She's coming over. She's walking towards me, head down, blushing slightly…

"Um, hi, can I quickly jot down the title and name of this book you're looking at?" She points to the book on hexes whilst turning a violent shade of magenta. The colour really brings out her freckles…

"Sure, yeah, go ahead". Keep it cool, Viktor, keep it cool…

As she flicks the pages of her homework diary to find today's date, I see 'MUDBLOOD' scrawled across April 16th in black marker pen. She turns a darker shade and rushes to cover up the scribbles to find the desired page quicker.

"You're a muggle-born?" I enquire.

"Um, yeah…" She shuffles a bit as she writes down the author's name, obviously finding this awkward. She looks embarrassed, almost ashamed. "Cheers." She stumbles as she shuts her diary and begins to turn to walk away.

"Wait!" You can do it, Viktor, you can do it, play it cool. "Can you show me how to do- what do muggles call them- Sudoku's?"

Please say yes please say yes please say yes please say yes please say yes please say yes.

"Sure!" She replies. "We could do it now if you want?"

"That would be great, thank you so much. Um, what's your name?"

"Hermione. Hermione Granger."

"We both know I'm going to have trouble pronouncing that… Nice to meet you Hermione." She giggles at this. God dang I'm too smooth.

"And yours?"

She doesn't know my name. Perfection.

"Viktor. Viktor Krum."

We nod at each other simultaneously in agreement of a small friendship beginning. She sits down and begins to explain that the principle of Sudoku's is that in each square and each row and column numbers cannot be repeated.

I look up at her as she explains writing probable numbers in the corners of squares, and noticing me, she smiles.

We both knew that this wouldn't be a small friendship.


	2. Chapter 2

"So this 'butterbeer' is what exactly?"

"A hot drink, non-alcoholic of course, that has sweet caramel tones and a buttery flavour." Hermione replied, taking a swift yet elegant swig from her tankard.

"Ahhhh." I say, sipping away at the froth, almost reeling back from the overwhelming sweetness of the froth.

She giggles, covering her mouth as she does so to muffle her laughter.

"What?" I question.

"You have some…" She points are my upper lip, and grabbing a napkin, she dabs away at the butterbeer moustache. "Don't worry, its mandatory to have a froth 'tache when you first try this."

I love the way she smiles. Her dimples deepen, her eyes shine with brilliance. She then turns around suddenly and shrinks into her chair.

"What's wrong? What did you see?" I ask inquisitively.

"…So then Father talks with Karkaroff and the Minister, gambling around 100 galleons that Krum will sleep with three girls in the first week, and he will date a Hogwarts hog for 5 weeks…" Malfoy jabbers on, swaggering in with a girl on his arm. She looks shy, by almost sour, like she would reel back and hiss at you for saying 'hello'. I try to hide my face like Hermione did in embarassment, but I don't understand why she sunk into her chair.

"And he's already bagged one! Viktor!" Malfoy says, placing a hand on my shoulder and staring down at the soft curls of Hermione, not realising who is underneath the mop of hair. "You gonna introduce me? Might as well give me a head start, she'll run to the Slytherin bed chambers once you've gotten rid of her."

As Malfoy spoke, Hermione has flushed surprisingly not bright red, but a pasty white colour. She is terrified, not embarrassed. I've been angry many a time, but I tried to stop my fists clenching, tried to stop the blood pounding in my head, but I guess if I punch him square in the jaw I could always blame the basis biology…

"And who is this one then?" Malfoy strutting around the table to see Hermione, guffawing when he sees her face. "Granger? Krum, you do realise girls will fall for you instantly. You don't need to try that hard to get a girl, even one of the attractive ones."

She had tears in her eyes. He had his hand on her chair, the other one on the table, closing her in, his dominance a grey cloud above her head. He stared down like an eagle searching for prey. But my Hermione is not prey.

"But each to their own, eh?" Alas, he continued, further ruining our first date. "If you personally like desperate mudbloods then that's up to you." He laughed at his own joke.

His crew laughed with him, smirking at Hermione's efforts to not burst into tears. She was strong, I knew that, I won't stand for prats like him.

I put down my tankard slowing, ensuring no butterbeer slopped down the sides, and slowly looked up to his smirking face.

"You're going to leave now, or you're going to get hurt", as I uttered those words with a casual fierceness, the pub went silent. Everyone put down their drinks and turned to watch the show. I'm pretty sure I even saw the waitress put up her hand to quieten someone who was ordering a drink!

"Krum, Krum, Krum. You don't want to waste your pretty fists on me when you could use them to knock out Potter in the tournament."

"Potter and me are friends, actually, and if I can't use my fists on you, I'm pretty sure he will lend me his Firebolt to shove up your as-"

Hermione grasped my hand. I realised I was standing up. She looked at me intently, mouthing the word 'don't'.

"Exactly, Granger. For once, you're right!" Malfoy spoke, seeing her encouraging me to calm down, "Krum, you can't do anything to me. I have too much power here."

I had to calm down. I silenced myself and took a sip of the sickly beer. I was about to tell Hermione that we should leave, but then she piped up herself:

"He may not be able to do anything," Hermione said with a smile on her face, turning her head and glaring up to Malfoy, "But I can."

At that point she took advantage of Malfoy's stance. He stood side on to her chair, hence, she took her elbow and rammed in into his crotch, with great force I might add.

The whole pub attempted to sustain their laughter, but gave in immediately and began clapping. Malfoy strutted out, flushed up and murmuring some nonsense about his father, sweeping his platinum hair out of his face.

Hermione isn't prey. She looks like a rabbit, but has the heart of a lion. This is why I'm dating her…

The waitress came up to us after the cheering had died down, giving us salted nuts and another round of butterbeer on the house.

"You do realise that you are awesome, right?" I said to Hermione.

She giggled, sipped her butterbeer, and we talked about the various things we could do to Malfoy with a Firebolt.


	3. Chapter 3

"C'mon, Viktor. Just get this spell right." Viktor Krum brandished his wand and flicked it around the empty classroom, attempting to obtain success, yet only destruction exploded from it.

"C'mon." He said once again, his face strained and his teeth gritted.

Viktor stopped blue sparks flying across the room when he heard the door creak open. Hermione put her head around the door and smiled at him.

"Any success?" She asked, plonking down a pile of heavy books onto the table and opening the first one.

"You tell me." He said, laughing and with the swift swish of a large, muscular arm he revealed the burn marks and a thick black substance that were thrown against the wall.

"Well," Hermione said, flicking through the book and upon reaching a desired page tracing her finger down its length, "Apparently imagining the enemy tied up in the black chains works."

Hermione looked up from the book and slammed it shut, coughing at the cloud of dust. She walked up to the mannequin he had been practicing on and peered at it, then glancing to the wall behind it that was covered in the result of the failure of the spell.

"Perhaps were could work on aim some more…" Hermione giggled. She examined at the black…liquid, was it? She picked at it with her fingernail and crumbled it onto the floor. She looked up to see Viktor's stern look break to reveal a soft smile as he began to laugh. He stroked his head.

She walked up to him and put her hand on his shoulder, assuming a position behind him and squeezing. He peered behind him towards her and smiled.

"Imagine… an enemy…" She whispered into his ear, then kissing his cheek. Krum breathed in, closed his eyes and with an icy glance to the mannequin held his wand above his head and thrust the wand towards the target.

"Yaaah!" He shouted, his strength brooding greatly.

Black bandages that resembled leather bound themselves around the shoulders and waist of the mannequin. They tightened as he narrowed his eyes fiercely.

He strained further, his wand still poised and acting upon the target until the mannequin shattered under the pressure into several large pieces.

A moment of raw silence proceeded until Hermione's delicate footsteps walked across the floor. She bent down and picked up a shard.

Krum breathed deeply, gasping for air and looking at her curiously.

She stood up to face him and examining it raised her head.

She smiled.

"Perfect."


	4. Chapter 4

I sat on a stone bench in a frosty courtyard with my fleece hoody wrapped tightly around me. I twiddled my wand around my fingers, waiting for Hermione. Why wasn't she here? She said she wakes up early, and it's eight in the morning! I need to practice this spell.

"Sorry I'm a tad late!" Shouted a voice from behind me. I turned in response to see Hermione jogging through a corridor and into the courtyard. She pulled off her hood and flipped her head over, tying her mop of curls into a tight and messy bun.

Now that was some serious magic.

She came back up and questioned me in regards to why I looked so dumbfounded at her abilities of hairstyle and walked over to a corner of the courtyard.

"Right." She said, taking out her wand and rolling up her sleeves. "You remember the spell?"

"Yep." I reply, mirroring her actions and hunching down into a fiercer, more viscous position.

"Ready?" I ask her, smiling slyly and staring into her eyes.

"As I'll ever be." She smiled maliciously and we both pulled back our bodies and thrust our wands in each other's direction, shouting spells at each other.

Flames shot out of the tip of her wand, the flames' heat melting the snow into puddles of water and scorching the stone surface. At a fiery strike came towards me, I shot a glowing shield in front of me and in reaction to the fire that licked my counter-curse, small chips of ice fell and smashed onto the floor.

We both let out great heaves and gasps, reeling back out wands in tiredness. She slumped down against a courtyard wall and I knelt down on the snow, reaching out to touch the newly formed icicles and holding one up to the light. It melted in my finger tips and cold drops of water seeped down my hand and into my palm.

I looked towards her, both of us breathing heavily. She had her hand on her heart, attempting to return to her usual state of calmness.

A minute of heavy pants and red cheeks pasted, our thoughts leading us away from where we both knelt until I saw a glint out of the corner of my eye.

I looked to her and saw her smiling and looking at me in pure wonder.

"That was awesome." She breathed, looking down towards the ground in shock at what she had just experienced, still trying to understand the great power we had both unleashed.

I stood up and walked over to her and she looked up at me.

I sat down beside her and planted a firm kiss on her cheek, nuzzling my nose and she giggled softly.

I turned to look at the mess we had created: ash and ice, smashed together in a great form that resembled modern art.

"You were awesome." I said, placing a hand out to my side. She slapped it and said:

"We were awesome."

We laughed together, threw our wands to the side and looked at dawn breaking over the mountain tops.


	5. Chapter 5

Why is she late? She said, 10.30, right? I even got up for this. And it's a Saturday! I don't even know what's so special about this place. What's it called again? Hogsmeade? They're so weird here, yet I'm sort of starting to like it here. It's… cosy.

It's so cold out here, why did we have to promise to meet outside?

Hey, someone's coming over! Who is it, I can't see through this fog… Oh. It's…what the name…Lavender Brown.

Why isn't she here yet? It's 10.40. I'll walk back up to Hogwarts, maybe I'll see her up there.

Finally, I'm back in the school grounds. My boots are soaked with melting slush, the fierce morning sun glinting into my eyes off of the snow and ice. Bloomin' crowded here in the courtyard, groups of gaggling girls and flirting guys scampering around looking for a chat.

Where is she? Did she forget? Oversleep or something?

"And here you can see a lonely Krum searching high and low for his girlfriend. Alas, she is nowhere to be se-"

I turned around sharply and grabbing Malfoy's throat I pin him up against a statue of a rather large stone toad being ridden by a witch will long flowing locks and a huge jagged crown upon her head.

"What have you done?" I spit, glaring into his icy eyes and glowering as he whimpers.

"Nothing! I haven't done anything!" He squirms, thrashing and burning a violent shade of red as students turn around in shock to see the scene. I knew he was lying.

I hear a sharp squeak behind me. I recognised it clear as day and dropped Malfoy. He stumbled to his knees, and looked up at me, scrambling up and rushing away to his common room.

I turned around to see Hermione with tears forming in her eyes and dripping down her cheek. She turned and ran away, down a long stone corridor.

"Wait!" I shouted, running after her.

She stopped and slowly spun her body to face me. She was trembling, her eyes filled with sadness and…disappointment.

"I trusted you." She whispered, her face bright red as she felt the stares of dozens of people.

I looked at her and breathed heavily in shock. I didn't understand. What had I done?

She raised her wand, now anger was brewing in her eyes, and like a whip she lashed out her wand to send a spell my way. I ducked and closed my eyes, bringing my hands over my head. I slowly opened my eyes a minute later as silence fell to see a wall of bright blue. I reached out to touch this obstacle in my path. Ice.

I place both my hands on the cold surface and closing my eyes, rested my forehead on the wall in front of me.

"Shit." I whispered, and raising my wand, I placed the tip on the surface of the ice.

"Conflacalor" I said repeatedly, and watched, in silence, the ice melt away.

Once a hole had been cleared I walked through it and after walking the front door, slammed the entrance to Hogwarts behind me.


	6. Chapter 6

Shit. Shit, shit, shit, what have I done? What has he done? What does she think I've done? Where is she?

I walk along winding corridors and run up endless stairs, twisting my neck in the hope that I might see a wisp of curly caramel hair or the sleeve of a blue hoody. She always wears that hoody.

Don't get distracted, think, Krum! I stop halfway up the stairs and clamp my eyes shut.

Shit. I just don't know what to do. I bury my hands in my face, then pushing my hair back, looking around in despair.

"Looking for someone?" I hear a small voice behind me ask.

I turn around and look down to see a dainty Lavender Brown, looking up at me with an inquisitive look.

"I know why she's run off, and where she's run of-"She started.

"Where is she?!" I interrupt in desperation.

She recoils slightly. I inhale, exhale and shrink away from my previous aggressive stance.

"You have to listen to me before you go find her. Things are…complicated."

"How complicated?" I ask, a tone of worry protruding from my voice.

"Just…Come with me. We have to start from the beginning." She glanced around anxiously, walked down the stairs and I followed.

As we approached a stone corridor Lavender looked around and breathed deeply. She began to speak:

"Malfoy has power here. Great power. In case you were unaware, his father is influential within the ministry. They're all a bunch of bullies, the whole lot of them. You won't believe the things he's done to m-" She paused as she looked up to me. "Sorry. It's just… stay out of his way in the future. You haven't done anything to him, have you?"

She looked worried. I gulped.

"uhhhh…" I answered. I gave her a guilty smile.

"Well, I suppose that makes more sense… Malfoy's always had it in for her because she's a muggle born and an extremely talented witch. That doesn't make sense in his mind. It's just, oh Lord, there's a rumour going around that certain documents were found in her satchel."

"What do you mean?" I asked in fear.

"Dark magic." She whispered. And then she looked away, as if she had sworn.

"She denies it, of course. I just can't believe that she would do that. Why would she do that? It can't be true!" She was tearing up, shaking her head vigorously in confusion and disarray.

"Then why is she acting like this towards me?" I need answers.

"Malfoy is saying that you planted them, that you were using them for the tournament and hid them in her bag." She replied, pushing her hair back and turning as she heard a door slam in the distance.

"And she believes them!" I was getting angry now.

"Do you really think she can trust anyone!? Look at how insecure she is! You were hanging out with Malfoy, you are the popular, famous boy. She doesn't expect that! Weasley's going off of one saying you're the competition, and despite that she STILL knows that even if Malfoy is lying the outcome will be the same!" Lavender was angry. He cheeks were flushed, her eyes flashing with rage. Her arms were flailing during this speech, her fingers pointing at me.

I calmed down, and after an awkward pause, I spoke.

"I'm sorry, I should've known." Another moment of silence fell. She apologised for her outburst and resumed the awkward pause, avoiding eye contact, deep in thought.

"Wait." I said, after trying to figure out this whole mess and how I would kill Malfoy.

"What outcome? Lavender? What's going to happen to Hermione?"

She looked up at me, wiped a large, glistening tear of a puffy cheek and looked down on the floor.

"Oh god!" She began to sob, wiping her face with her jumper sleeve and gasping.

I grabbed her arm and tried to look into her eyes, trying to find out what on earth was going on. "What's going to happen to Hermione?!"

"What do you think's going to happen?! You should've stayed away from him! You should've stayed away!" Her frustration was clear and she looked me straight in the eyes. She took a deep breath and said her final words:

"She's going to be expelled."


	7. Chapter 7

How long have I been waiting outside this office? An hour? Two? Three, even?

Is this even an office? She pointed me in this direction, but all I can see is a great stone eagley type thing. And it's looking right at me with its eagley type eyes. Creepy…

Hermy wouldn't use dark magic, would she? No… Maybe she wants to protect me or Harry, teach us some spells that would be sure to knock out the competition (literally). No… It's not possible…

Footsteps. Someone's coming.

I twiddle my wand between my fingers and turn my head sharply to the end of the corridor, almost dropping it when I see who is coming towards me. She warned me about him, especially since he's been coming to our ship in the dead of the night to talk to Karkaroff.

Snape.

"Mr. Krum." He begins, stopping in front of me with his hands behind his back and a sly smirk spreading across his face. "Late evening walk? Or…"

"I need to talk to the Headmaster. Now." God, he is terrifying close up. C'mon, be brave, Viktor.

"I'm afraid the professor is bus-"

"I'm not busy, Severus. In fact I've been waiting for Krum all afternoon." I turn to see Dumbledore looking down upon me from several steps up a staircase that replaced the creepy eagle statue.

Wait. When did the eagle move?

He signals me to enter and I slowly walk up the stone stairs and walk through a large, oak door, then sitting on a strange wooden seat by a revolving silver orb.

"Professor, I didn't plant any dark magic! I swear!" I say desperately as he holds up his wand to the light and wipes off a smudge. "Hermione would never do this, you know that!"

"Viktor." He holds up a hand to silence me.

"I've been studying all day. I wouldn't do that to her!" I'm almost shouting now in frustration. Calm, Viktor, calm.

"I know." A voice whispers behind me.

Hermione stepped out from behind a bookcase, holding several books in her hands and shoving them on by one into her satchel that was already bulging.

"I needed to make it seem like that. Like you'd betrayed me and you were using the dark magic." She continued as she dropped one on bewitching ('Bewitching Your Best Friends and other Friendly Fouls!' by Martha Fedrovna)

"What?" Why would she do such a thing? For what reason?

"I have no interest in using dark magic, but someone does."

"Woah woah woah. What?" I splutter. After buttoning her satchel and tossing it next to the bookcase she looked up to me, pushing a piece of frizzy hair out of her eyes.

"I found several sheets of relatively decaying parchment in use for a binding spell."

"A binding spell?"

I look around to see Dumbledore dusting the top of the silver orb with the tip of an index finger and it fell into his palm. After changing colour from steel to bubblegum pink to indigo, he blew gently on it. Like a giant bubble it bounced off the walls and slowly stopped in the air in another crevice of the office, next to rather old, shrivelled hat that glared at the orb with a sour frown.

"A binding spell," he begins, clapping his hands together to get rid of the dust, "is a spell that locks away a secret, creating a type of contract between the caster and the object in use. Someone used such magic to prevent an object from displaying its secrets. Any wizard can do a simple spell for it to reveal what lies behind it, for example, a bewitching, etc.

"However, in this case, it was a darker form of such a spell. Almost impossible to break using light magic. It is no simple feat, especially on an object with numerous powerful protections."

"And the object in use?" I enquire.

"The goblet of fire."


End file.
